Dormivigilia

A few days ago, my first, first author paper was finally published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. After spending years working on the project, months writing and re-writing the paper, and another few months swearing at Adobe Photoshop for its stubborness, the journey has been captured in eight pages. Here, I describe the results, [...]

I don’t usually find articles in the Journal of Neuroscience that are specifically devoted to research on sleep and circadian rhythms. But I received a treat this week, nonetheless, from the U of Wisconsin group of Chiara Chirelli and Giulio Tononi, who are leading experts on the evolutionary significance of sleep (and also consciousness): sometimes, [...]

This past week, Ohio has been pounded with nasty weather, including an earthquake on Wednesday!!!! Yesterday morning, I was awoken by torrential rain and thunder. Though I did not have any storm-related electrical issues, Montegraphia did, which I soon discovered after entering his apartment last night to feed his herps and fish and subsequently being [...]

Unlike most fall sneak peaks, which are for new or continuing television series, such as my favorite guilty pleasure,  Jersey Shore, an article published by myself and former lab mates is also receiving a sneak peak; The now, Dr. Steve B. Hammer’s paper, Environmental Modulation of Alcohol Intake in Hamsters: Effects of Wheel Running and [...]

Last Friday, I blogged about increasing reports of concussions and related head injuries (unintentional or intentional) in physical contact sports over the past few years. Though I proclaimed to love my head and mental capacity and therefore attempt to prevent unnecessary head thrashing, I cheated this weekend by going to Waldameer Park in Erie, PA [...]

As a neuroscientist and someone with an extensive family history of Alzheimer’s, I embrace my intellectual capacity. Until recently, many professional athletes have undervalued the importance of a healthy brain….by bashing their heads at full speed into other people or a soccer ball traveling 60 mph. Though we still see a lot of the latter, [...]

This week’s Neury Thursday is a challenge to write because it features a fabulously comprehensive research study using methodologies that I’m still, as a novice, struggling to understand (Wikipedia isn’t much help); San Franciscan researchers utilized optogenetics, the combination of genetic (i.e. knock-outs) and channelrhodopsin to elucidate co-expressing dopaminergic and glutamatergic brain centers implicated with drug [...]

Though various flora and fauna (and long days!!!) are indications of Ohioan summers, I have physiologically been forewarned of summer by having difficulty falling and staying asleep at night. Supporting sustainability (i.e. not using air conditioning) is a Devil’s advocate as reported (and personally experienced) in recent news from the  National Sleep Foundation. But at [...]

This time of the year in Ohio, it’s quite easy to be distracted by buzzing cicadas in the day and crickets at night. South Africa is experiencing a more menacing epidemic, however, one that was highly distracting to myself and other fellow Heptagonal athletes back in 2004 , when a Dartmouth athlete decided to blare a [...]

Surprisingly, this year’s meeting devoted several symposia, posters, and invited lectures (including the keynote address!!) to the interactions of sleep homeostasis and circadian timing in metabolic, memory, immune, and emotional systems. The general conclusion being that severe disruption to the circadian timing system, whether through shift work, repeated jet lag, and/or gene mutations, increases risk [...]